FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It would have been a challenging Sunday
afternoon if the Chargers had been at full strength. But playing an
unbeaten team became a monumental chore with key players ailing
amid frosty conditions.

Despite an uphill battle, the Chargers put up a good fight, but
their red-zone offense was as cold as the weather at Gillette
Stadium as they lost 21-12 to the New England Patriots in the AFC
Championship Game.

The Patriots advanced to Super Bowl XLII against the New York
Giants in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 3. The Chargers will be watching
from their homes to see if New England can complete its attempt at
a perfect season.

The Chargers gave a sound effort, but there's one thing you can
surely say about the Patriots: This team knows it's good.

The Patriots won their 18th consecutive game since the start of
the 2007 season, tying the NFL record for victories in a season.
They are headed to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven
seasons after beating a Chargers team hindered by injuries to top
skill players LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates.

"They're a great football team," Chargers coach Norv Turner
said. "They've won every one of their games. What can you say about
that? They're a complete team."

They were certainly more complete than the Chargers, who
ventured inside the New England 10-yard line three times and were
forced to settle for a field goal each time. And when the Patriots
needed to kill the clock, they did so in impression fashion by
running off the final nine minutes, 13 seconds of the game by
accumulating five first downs to give the Chargers no opportunity
to mount a late rally.

"It's very disappointing," receiver Vincent Jackson said.
"There's no consolation of playing these guys tough or keeping it
close. We had one goal this year, and that was to win the
championship. So there's a lot of disappointment right now."

The Chargers had a chance to take the lead early in the second
half. They reached the Patriots' 4-yard line and were facing
third-and-1 when former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau raced
through a gap and tackled Michael Turner for a 2-yard loss. Instead
of possibly scoring a go-ahead touchdown, the Chargers settled for
Nate Kaeding's 24-yard field goal and still trailed 14-12.

"That was a real good opportunity because we were real close,"
receiver Chris Chambers said. "We had the opportunity to go ahead
at that point. I think that was the difference."

It was the worst of three failed opportunities that will haunt
the Chargers in the coming days. They also reached the Patriots' 8
in the first quarter and the 5 in the second quarter and had to
settle for Kaeding field goals.

"Our philosophy was, with a great offense like that, if you can
hold them to three points, that's a victory," said Patriots strong
safety Rodney Harrison, another former Chargers star.

Regarding the first missed opportunity, Chambers said he ran the
wrong route before he caught a pass out of the end zone. In the
second quarter, Jackson was open in the end zone, but quarterback
Philip Rivers instead threw underneath to Chambers, who was tackled
at the New England 5.